Enough
by Cheeseburger of Doom
Summary: [Warlords 15, SanaKaido sidestory] Sanada is trying to make dinner for the first time in his life, and he's not doing very well.


A/N: This one was written due to an interesting incident that occurred one evening -- I was looking for something, and neither my sister or I could find it. I said "If you find it, I'll write you SanaKaido tomorrow." She found it two minutes later, of course.

I decided to write this one in the Warlords universe because it provides convenient Tragic Pasts (tm) as well as ready-made angst, and a great AU setting so I don't have to think too hard how to get these boys together! Reading the rest of Warlords is not necessary, really; but it might make a little more sense if you do. The first story especially, since it's the original SanaKaido, haha.

This fic is more fluff than anything, so all of the angst/tragedy/violence/killing/unhappiness in most of the Warlords stories are not present here! (isn't it about time?)

and -- in the last story (number thirteen, which was SUPPOSED to be the last story...) it is mentioned that Yanagi and Kirihara ask to stay with Sanada for a while -- let's assume that they're gone by now, living their own life.

Now, with all that being said -- onto the SanaKaido fluff!

Warlords #15 (side-story): Enough

Sanada had never chopped an onion before. The need had never come up while he was living out on the streets. His gang had always lived off of what they could find or steal -- and they had never bothered to steal anything that needed to be prepared. They had nothing to prepare it with. No one knew how to cook, because there had never been anyone to teach them. Microwaves were an easy tool, but then again they would have been useless anyway -- in the area outside of the city where the gangs lived there was no electricity. It was a forsaken place left to the gangs a long, long time ago, and no one else ever dared to go there.

Even after he'd left the gang, Sanada had never bothered to try and eat right. He bought his food instead of stealing it, and he'd even invested in a microwave recently -- which was nice, because he could eat warm food once in a while, now -- but he had never tried to make a real meal.

Today, he had become the proud owner of a very old and used, but still fully-functional, oven. He had also gotten his hands on some pots and pans, dishes that weren't cracked, and some cooking utensils that were still fully intact. It was all old and used, but anything new would not have fit into his rundown apartment anyway.

Sanada could not afford a better apartment because he did not have a very good job. There was no chance of finding a better one, either, being the undereducated former gang leader that he was. Even if the employer had no idea of his past, there was always something about him that they didn't trust -- it was leftover from living the life he had lived since he was born.

Sanada was still staring at the offending onion and trying to discover its secrets when he heard the front door.

"Sanada?"

"In here," Sanada replied. Kaido, his roommate for over three years now, worked later than he did most nights. He was also a former gang member, and he had an even rougher look to him -- which was funny, because he was a complete pacifist.

Sanada had picked Kaido up out of an alley back then, beaten almost to death by his gang -- after one of its members had killed Kaido's lover to gain leadership.

"What are you doing?" Kaido asked, entering the rundown kitchen.

"Trying to make dinner," Sanada replied.

"We have an oven?"

"One of the men at my work was asking around for someone to help him move all of his old things to the dump. He's getting married and doesn't need any of it anymore. I thought we might be able to use it."

"Maybe we can eat real food."

"If I can figure out how to make it. I bought a cookbook." Kaido followed Sanada's nod, and picked the book up off the table.

"Cooking for kids?"

"I liked the pictures."

Kaido laughed. That sound always surprised Sanada, because it was so rare. Neither of them had ever been the laughing type, because of the past -- but they were slowly learning how to tell a joke, slowly learning how to be happy and put that past behind them.

"I didn't think I could handle anything more complicated than what was in there," Sanada said. "I can't even chop this onion."

"You should peel it first."

"What? Oh."

"Can I help?"

"No. I'm going to make us dinner if it kills me. You can try tomorrow night -- oh, shit." Sanada looked at his bleeding finger with a pained expression on his face.

Kaido used the corner of his shirt to stop the blood flow. "The onion, not your finger," he said. "Or dinner really will kill you."

"Yes, I know."

"Try not to hurt yourself again." Kaido raised the injured digit to his lips, and kissed the pain away.

There were times when Kaido was too sexy for his own good -- and Sanada's. It was unnatural to be this turned on while making dinner.

"I'll put a band-aid on it."

"Do we have any?"

"I bought some." Kaido went and retrieved a box from the bathroom.

"It has kittens on it," Sanada said, staring at the bandage. Kaido blushed.

"Well -- they were cheaper than the bigger box of plain ones, and that was all they had down the street."

"I see. Next time, I will come with you, and we'll go to a bigger store," Sanada said. "I can't go to work with kittens on my finger every day."

"You can tell them your son put it there."

"They know I don't have any kids. Now go take your shower. Hopefully dinner will be cooking when you come out."

"You won't chop your hand off if I leave you alone, will you?"

"Just go," Sanada growled. Kaido was a very good tease because he could keep a straight face.

Kaido disappeared into the bathroom again, and Sanada went back to attempting to make dinner.

Everything was in a pot on the stove, presumably doing what it was supposed to, when Kaido emerged -- clad in only a towel.

Sanada watched beads of water travel down Kaido's chest as he stood in the doorway. They disappeared beneath that towel, and then --

No, definitely not natural to think those thoughts while making dinner.

"I forgot my clothes," Kaido muttered. There were times that he still blushed when Sanada looked at him in a certain way -- this was one of them.

"I like you that way," Sanada murmured. He couldn't help himself any longer; he got up and attached his lips to Kaido's neck. The towel fell off, and to the floor, forgotten; Kaido arched up into Sanada's touch --

--and then whatever was on the stove started to bubble over.

"Damn," Sanada muttered.

"It's cold in here," Kaido said, "and your dinner is going to burn." He picked up the towel, and went to put on some clothes.

A half hour later, Sanada and Kaido sat at their table, and looked into two of their new bowls.

"This might taste like shit," Sanada said, looking doubtfully at the mess he had created.

"It won't." Kaido's eyes told his emotions more than his expression ever did, and right then, they were telling Sanada that Kaido trusted him -- had faith in him.

Sanada had not believed that he would ever be happy again after Yukimura's death -- but he was happy now, against all odds.

He could have continued to blame himself for everything that had happened, and denied himself all happiness -- but Yukimura, who was in some wonderful place now, would never have forgiven him.

"It's good," Kaido said. "It's real food, for once."

"I shouldn't have worried. After living off booze, drugs, garbage, and frozen food for most of your life, anything would taste fine," Sanada said.

"No, it tastes good because you made it."

That made Sanada smile. "You can make dinner tomorrow."

"I'll try."

"I'm sorry there are no pictures of kittens in the cookbook though," Sanada said. Kaido blushed, then he laughed.

Later, when they were curled up together on the couch watching television (another castoff Sanada had acquired at some point), and Kaido fell asleep in Sanada's arms -- he realized that the past hurt less and less with each new day.

He was glad that he had found Kaido in the alley that day, and glad that he had told Kaido to stay with him.

"Hey, Kaido -- Kaoru. Wake up." They still called each other by their last names most of the time; it was just force of habit. Lately they'd been trying, though it was still strange to hear a "Genichirou" from Kaido's lips.

At least it didn't hurt anymore. He didn't think of Yukimura every time Kaido said it -- and that was okay, because Yukimura was still in his heart, anyway.

Kaido blinked sleepy eyes at him. "Sorry. I fell asleep on you again. How did the movie end?"

"It was a happy ending."

"I like happy endings."

Sometimes, Kaido was too sexy -- and other times, he was too sweet.

"Let's go to bed," Sanada said.

"Okay."

Sanada hoped that things could stay this way for a long time. He didn't know if what they had was love -- but that didn't really matter, because whatever it was, it was good enough.


End file.
